Students as Language Education Policy Agents: Insights from Rural High School English Learners in China

ABSTRACT

With the aim of further exploring students’ engagement with language education policy processes and their decision-making practices that shape their language learning experience, this study carried out a nine-month ethnographic fieldwork to examine the English language learning trajectories of three rural high school students in China. On top of showcasing the nuances involved in the local interpretation and implementation of national English language education curriculum amid on-going reform, this study demonstrates how students creatively navigated interwoven individual expectations and institutional agendas in situated practices. It further highlights the need to give voices to students in exploring the multilayered and highly contextualized policy process, to better understand and serve their various language learning needs.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethnography of language policy
• identity
• language education

Notes

1. In 2014, China’s State Council put forward a guideline for carrying out college entrance examination reform. By 2019, out of the 23 provinces, five ethnic minority autonomous regions, and four province-level municipalities in China, 10 provinces and all four municipalities have carried out the reform, a majority of which are located in economically more 575 developed regions of China.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jing Zhang

Jing Zhang is Research Associate in the School of Foreign Languages, Southeast University, Nanjing, China. Her research interests include minority language education, bilingual education, and language policy.